The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-04-28
LIFE IN CAIRO.
Seductive Influences OF a So
journ in Egypt.
Daily Life and Picturesque Soene' in An
Oriental City,

Daily Life and Picturesque Scene, in An
Oriental City.
A correspondent Of the Louisville
Courier. Journal thus seductively de-
scribes the sweetness of doing nothing in
modern Cairo: When one is fairly in
Egypt, floating softly on the undulating
tide of life in Cairo, one wonders why
ones tmc and adjectives were wasted
ON Europe; why people arc ever con-
tented to stop short of the desert.
Cairo, with its strange history and
stranger streets, its mosques and
bazaars, is charming study. All ma
tons meet here; all languages and all
customs obtain here, and of wonderful
costumes aad merchandise there is no
end. In this sweetest of winter climates
life seems too short to be in hurry;
indeed, it is not worth living unless one
can loiter. The donkeys and cats alone
would make d lifelong study; when they
lift up their voices either slngly
or in concert, the very
stars in heaven quake, and the
moon turns pale and trembles, And
then there are the people who own the
cats and who lide the donkeys-several
decades might be devoted to them. An
Egyptian woman is an object when on
foot; but when she mounts donkey
she is vision! To begin with, she rides
on both sides of the animal, and when
her curious black drapery bags out in
the wind, and tho donkey disappears,
save that his big cars and small legs
twinkle occasionally into view, scnsa-
tions fade, words fail, and one feels the
nocd of rest and nourishmcnt. Dodging
under camcls; stepping over dogs and
children; pushing aside donkeys and
people, one finds a narrow alley leading
oil the Mou'kcc, and seeming to wind
its tortuous way in strange places. One
or two smaller alleys turn off; then be-
fore you rises low archway. The
shadow is very deep; you are evidently
under house, and keen wind, like
that in a narrow mountain dcfilc, nearly
takes your hat off. A wide gate stands
open; one moment takes you through,
past the group of guardian Arabs; you
turn corner, and before you opens the
garden the
,mores and acacias bend and droop
o. the flower beds, roses and fleur de
ly >'~ave in the wind; great bamboos,
npte than forty feet>high, sway with q
long, slow motion; the red hibiscus
burns like fire in the green gloom; the
shadowy palms whisper softly to the
fresh wind coming in from the desert
the little wag-tais hop about the path
the doves mourn their hearts out in the
tree-tops; the cloudless, rainless sky
spreads blue above, and the sun comes
down between the leaves in thousand
golden streams. People who know how
to live in Egypt come here, and life goes
on as it should in the land of the lotus.
Excursions are made easily; sights are
seen intelligcntly; there is quiet talk and
peaceful thought here in the fragrant
garden. An artist paints with his
Arab and Fcllah models grouped in tho
sunshine on the piazza; further on al
Englishman sits translating an Aral
book; still further down the vine-drapeG
vista some Arab sheiks are bargaining
with knowing Esyptologists for antique.
-scarabs and ugly little gods-strang.
old rings and Coptic cmbroiderics.
Down in the garden the artists wifi,
and an American woman drum softly OF
darabukkah, while on the path in from
of them Felah girl kneels, tryin!
faithfully to teach them native song
Strange and wild it is. with an unac-
countablc measure that can only b
caught by ear, not learned by method
Near by conjuror does his marvcllou
tricks, his mysterious call of "gala
gala" now and then rising above tn
barbaric song. An East Indian merchant
with his rich stufs spread over chairs ant
benches, his gold and silver wares gilt
ting in the sunlight, chaffers persuasive
ly with group of people, who try vain
ly 10 look sufficiently Indifferent t.
make him lower his prices. The noon
day sun is blazing overhead; the bird
are still, and tie roses droop a little
but sitting quietly in the shade it is no
so bad, and the desert wind coming owe
the garden of neighboring shcik, ha
a crisp, cool touch to it. Later the seem
dissolves, and the company so thei
different ways, to meet again after din
ner under the broad fall of moonlight
Then cigars and talk of the days oings
stories Of odd adventures stories of "olt
times" when they first came down int
Egypt, and so the pleasant days drif
by.
The MethOdists.
Figures printed in the Methodist Yea
Rnnk shnm thnt ON Innnnrr 1SS-